


Run to Begin

by MetamorphicRocky



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Dadspeed, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, yes I am back on my bullshit so what
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-18 23:08:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29616843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetamorphicRocky/pseuds/MetamorphicRocky
Summary: "The quiet group turns the final corner, and Little Cato is floored by the sight of soldiers blocking the entrance to the field where he can hear and see the other children he’s known for so long crying in handcuffs, their parents staring down at them in disgust with guns held next to their eldest children.He’s going to die."When the Lord Commander asks his top generals to prove their loyalty by killing their first-born children, Little Cato catches on earlier than in canon.
Relationships: Avocato & Little Cato (Final Space), Gary Goodspeed & Little Cato
Comments: 15
Kudos: 49





	1. Escape

Little Cato leaves his house willingly at first, when all his dad says is that he needs to come with him. He’s stopped questioning his father now that he’s older, accepting that the secrecy is necessary. It’s evening as they walk through the streets of Tera Con Prime, and his father walks several steps ahead of him. Little Cato, for some reason, feels like this means something. That his father is deliberately putting distance between the two of them. His tail bristles with anxiety, and Little Cato needs to know what is happening.

“Dad? Where are we going?” Little Cato asks, watching as his father’s firm back stiffens at the question.

But he remains silent. 

Little Cato’s heart beats rapidly in his chest, fear blooming and his mind racing. He forces his legs to run up in front of his father and stop the man in his tracks, the general only then looking down his nose at him. His father’s eyes are ice as they glower at him, appraising him like someone who deserves to be underneath the general’s boot. No matter how much he wishes his father could be around more and spent more time besides training with him when he was around, Little Cato realizes that the man in front of him is who Avocato truly is.

He steps out of the way, his hands shaking, and trails after his father when the man resumes his walk towards a destination Little Cato dreads. Little Cato knows people fear his father, from the whispers he hears in the streets and the rumors his friends will tell him, but he had never feared his father until this very second.

Someone shakes his shoulder, and his head whips to his right to see his best friend Frill staring at him in confusion. “Dude, are you okay?” she asks, tilting her head.

“Did your dad tell you where we’re going?” Little Cato asks, his voice wavering.

She shrugs. “I don’t know, he just said the Lord Commander needed the kids. It’s probably something stupid, don’t worry!”

Frill smiles, her reptilian teeth showing as if nothing is wrong. Little Cato can only give her a small smile in response, not knowing why her statement only unnerves him more. She always gets the best rumors and conspiracies to tell their friends, so why wouldn’t she want to know more? When he looks around her, expecting to see her siblings trailing next to her if all the kids of the generals are needed, he stops breathing over their absence. 

Little Cato’s eyes flit towards the direction they’re walking, his dad and Frill’s dad walking beside each other with their hands hovering over their blasters. Little Cato gasps as he remembers that this path only leads towards the Lord Commander’s execution field. 

He can’t be right. He _can’t_. There’s nothing wrong with his father’s even harsher coldness and the fact that Frill’s dad isn’t avidly talking her ear off over another one of her successful battle simulations that Little Cato knows happened earlier today. Nothing is wrong. Everything is fine. He just has...an overly excited imagination. It’s all in his head. 

The quiet group turns the final corner, and Little Cato is floored by the sight of soldiers blocking the entrance to the field where he can hear and see the other children he’s known for so long crying in handcuffs, their parents staring down at them in disgust with guns held next to their eldest children.

He’s going to die.

His father finally stops in front of the wall of soldiers and turns towards Little Cato. Little Cato takes a step back, whispering, “No.”

The soldiers stand firm and readjust the grips on their guns at the same time his father’s glare hardens. His father takes a step towards him, beginning to speak, “Little Cato--”

“Run!” Little Cato cuts him off in a shout, grabbing Frill’s hand and sprinting in the opposite direction as fast as his legs will carry him.

He absently worries if he’s going to break his friend’s hand, his grip is so tight, but a broken hand is better than being dead. He can hear his father order the soldiers to go after them and the resulting blaster shots that come too close to their feet. This isn’t--this can’t be _happening_.

“We can’t just leave everyone else behind, Little Cato!” Frill shouts. He takes a second to glance at her, and tears are streaming down her face, blood dripping from her scaly lip where she bites down on it too hard. 

Little Cato ignores the tears in his own eyes as he focuses back on swerving through the now crowded streets. “If we go back there, we’re just gonna die, too! We can’t take out a whole army!”

“We should...split up,” Frill says quietly, her voice being drowned out by the shouting of the crowd and the blaster fire coming from all around them. “It’ll make it harder to track us.”

Little Cato can tell she’s lying, that she’ll go back for the others because she has to try. And even if Frill thinks the chance of rescue is hopeless, he understands that she couldn’t just keep living without her family and friends.

“Frill, please--!”

She rips her hand out of his iron grip and sprints ahead of him down the busy street where soldiers are coming directly towards them. Little Cato turns quickly down a small alley, crashing into the wall and scrambling back to his feet with a harried sob as he hears Frill scream in pain. His friends are probably already dead, and he’s going to join them soon if he doesn’t get off this planet. He wipes his tears away and keeps sprinting towards the port where there will be a ship he can steal and escape.

He doesn’t have time for his thoughts to distract him, so he focuses on one thing: survival.

Little Cato bursts back out onto a busy street and slinks through the crowd, stealing a blaster from someone’s hip. There aren’t any soldiers near him, but his luck is going to run out soon. If his father is also chasing after him, he only has so much time. His feet hurt and his chest burns from the exhaustion that even his adrenaline rush can’t hold at bay. The sooner he snags a ship, the sooner he can collapse and panic properly. 

He pushes himself past his limits like his father taught him to, ignoring the pang in his heart that his father was the one who taught him how to survive being executed by him.

He bursts into the port and scans all the ships around him, looking for one that isn’t occupied and is easy to hotwire. He spots a small bounty hunting ship and sprints for it, jumping on board and sealing the hatch behind him. The kid’s chest stutters as he takes a moment to rest, scanning the ship to get a general sense of its capabilities. The controls look simple enough, so he slips into the pilot’s seat and pops the motherboard open, fishing his hand around the wiring to rip the right wires apart and put them together.

Little Cato is operating on automatic, barely even registering what he’s doing beyond the urge to survive _run escape flee win_ \---

The controls come to life, and Little Cato laughs breathlessly and lets himself smile for a brief moment. His fingers fly towards the handles to get himself out of here, but a blast rocks the ship before he can take off. Little Cato looks out the front shield of the ship to stare his father down, a glare on the man’s face and a massive blaster mounted on his shoulder. The soldiers behind his father have their guns pointed directly at him, but none of them fire. This is personal now.

Little Cato takes one last look at his father’s face, then slams the controls and flies out of the port as fast as he can. Another blast rocks the ship, and alarms blare around him as he engages the lightfold engine to escape before anyone else can come after him.

He collapses back against the seat, his hands shaking as blinking red floods his vision and the swirl of colors from lightfolding gives him a moment of respite. His father...tried to kill him. All of his friends are dead, and Little Cato is all alone.

The sobs start before he can even process it all, and he curls into himself and screams.

This is....he doesn’t understand...why...what did he do to deserve this…?

The blinking of the ship grows more frantic, so he forces himself to pay attention for his continued survival after crying for an unknown amount of time. Oh, the hyperdrive is failing, and the ship is probably going to explode and kill him. Little Cato laughs through his tears, of course everything is falling apart. 

He grabs the ill-fitting helmet next to him and slips it on, folding his ears down so they don’t get even more squished. The ship’s lightfold engine fails, and he drops out into some empty part of space with nothing around. His stolen ship spins and spins until something explodes, and he flies out into space, hitting the debris of the ship around him and gasping in pain. 

Little Cato can feel the burns on his body and the panic in his veins, but he doesn’t really care anymore as his vision blurs in and out, black creeping up on him. At least if he runs out of oxygen and dies alone out here, he’ll be passed out so he won’t be awake for his slow death.

It doesn’t matter anymore...he has _nothing_ to keep him going. Not after tonight.

The boy lets himself float amongst space, curling into himself as he slowly falls into unconsciousness.

Arms wrap around him just as he’s about to give up and let the darkness embrace him. He won’t open his eyes, but he leans into the body who’s holding him, willing to let himself believe that maybe his father has come to save him and apologize. With a small smile at that impossible thought, his body goes slack as he finally lets himself fall unconscious.

* * *

Avocato lets the blaster fall to his side as the flaming ship lightfolds and flies into oblivion. 

“Sir, should we go after it?”

Avocato turns towards the soldier who spoke and shakes his head. “No, the ship took two direct hits. It won’t last for long, and no one will be able to survive it.”

“Your son won’t survive, Avocato?” The Lord Commander leers, forcing Avocato to turn around and kneel down in front of him.

“No, sir. He’ll be dead in minutes with a ship in such a bad condition.”

The Lord Commander grins sinisterly at him, floating back down to the ground to address him like he usually does. “Good, you have once again proven your loyalty to me. But to make sure that your son won’t survive, you’ll be grounded here for the foreseeable future. We wouldn’t want you going out to look for him, do we?”

Avocato hardens his expression and nods. “Of course, Lord Commander. You don’t have to concern yourself with worrying about me betraying you.”

“For your sake, see to it.”

The Lord Commander walks away, and Avocato knows the whole ordeal is done. All of the Lord Commander’s top generals have killed their first born children to prove their loyalty, just as planned. Avocato rises and dismisses the soldiers back to their normal posts and marches back to his home, ignoring the whispers of the people all around him talking about the chaos that had just occurred. 

The Ventrexian enters his home and shuts the door behind him. He takes one step further into his house before his legs give out underneath him, and his emotions burst to the forefront.

He killed his son.

No, no, all he did was damage his ship, albeit it very seriously to the point that there is little chance of survival. But...he did that on purpose, didn’t he?

No one should be able to survive the damage he did to that ship, but he raised his son to be able to withstand the most dire of circumstances. If anyone could survive, Little Cato would.

It doesn’t matter anymore, he supposes. Whether Little Cato survives or not, Avocato cannot search to find out definitively. He needs to accept that his son is dead, in the case that he did kill his son. 

Or, if his son is still alive, well….

Avocato doubts he’ll ever see him again, for better or for worse.

* * *

“HUE, how is he looking?”

“Great news, the boy is stable! He will recover fine!”

Gary turns towards the SAME that spoke and sighs in relief. He glances towards the small cat-boy and frowns at the bandages on his face, torso, and arms. Gary isn’t the smartest guy in the world, but he knows that it’s a little more than just sorta suspicious that a kid like this was alone in a ship that exploded.

“Gary--”

Gary sighs, cutting HUE off, “Okay, I know, HUE. You’re gonna remind me that my sentence is like three billion days longer because I broke the rules, I already hear your stupid spiel earlier.”

“Actually, Gary, I was going to commend you for your bravery. I did not know this was something you had within you.”

Gary pauses and smiles tentatively. “Wait, are you for serious right now?”

“Yes, your actions today were quite heroic. I believe this good behavior should be rewarded.”

Gary grins up at the ceiling and laughs, “Are you talking about what I think you are?”

“Yes, Gary. You have earned a cookie.”

The blond laughs excitedly and starts running out of the med bay to go accept the sweet rewards of his heroics, but the mechanical breathing from the machine the kid is hooked up to makes him pause. Gary turns around and frowns, taking in the sight of how small the small fry looks on the medical bed. He walks back towards the kid and sits down near his feet on the bed with a sigh.

“Sorry, HUE, cookies will have to wait until the small fry wakes up. He’ll probably be jealous I didn’t share, you know?”

HUE stays silent, and Gary pulls a knee up to his chest as he stares at the rise and fall of the kid’s chest. Gary should stay here, for the kid’s sake. Definitely not just because he worries that if he leaves for even a second the kid will up and die on him. Of course it isn’t that. And even if it was, who could blame him? Gary rescued the little guy from a pretty massive explosion, sue him for being a little worried.

Gary gently pats the kid’s ankle and resigns himself to staying here until the kid wakes up. Just to be safe.


	2. Vents

Gary doesn’t know how or when he fell asleep, but he does know that his back hurts from sleeping on the ground in the med bay. He sits up with an exaggerated groan, rolling his head in circles and sighing when his bones pop. 

“Good morning, Gary!”

Gary jolts and whips around just in time from KVN to fly into his face and knock him back down. Gary splutters and pushes the most annoying robot in the world off of him and onto the floor forcefully with a bang. He scrambles up to his feet, placing his hands on his hips and glaring at KVN.

“What the hell is wrong with you, KVN? You could have broken my brain right there or something, my gosh!” Gary rants.

KVN gasps and ignores Gary’s personal space once again to wrap his arms around Gary’s face. “Oh my gosh, I almost killed my best friend! Don’t worry, Gary, KVN will protect you!”

“You know, you protecting me is the last thing I’d ever want in life. I’d toss you out of the airlock to die alone in space if HUE would just get off of my cheeks for once,” he complains.

Gary grabs KVN’s arms and starts wrestling with them, trying to detangle the nuisance from his person and hopefully break him in the process. The blond groans in frustration and finally manages to get KVN free of him, spinning in a quick circle and tossing the robot through the entryway to the med bay. He huffs from the exertion, his eyes drifting away from the entryway towards the bed, only to freeze where he’s standing as he meets the eyes of the no longer unconscious kid.

The kid stares back at Gary with a strange intensity that makes Gary just the teeniest bit uncomfortable, but sometimes kids are weird like that, right?

“Oh, uh, you’re awake now! Super! How’re you feeling, small fry?” Gary asks tentatively.

The kid looks down at the bandages on his arms and back up to Gary with a frown, quietly asking, “Where am I?”

“The Galaxy One! It’s my ship, and I’m the captain!” Gary says excitedly in the hopes that it will ease the kid’s obvious nerves. “Name’s Gary Goodspeed, what about yours?”

The cat-boy just continues to stare at him, but suddenly, his eyes widen and he begins to glare. “Did he send you after me?” the kid demands, his tail bristling behind him.

“Truth, nobody sent me after you. Who’s this ‘he’ we’re talking about here?”

“If he didn’t send you to finish me off, then why am I here?” the kid practically hisses.

Gary is absolutely confused about what’s going on right now, but he puts his hands up to placate the kid who Gary is pretty sure is about to bolt. “Saw your ship go to boomtown and rescued you. I don’t...finish you off? Are you in trouble, small fry?”

The boy’s eyes flit away from Gary to something behind him, but he doesn’t respond. The distrustful look on his feline features don’t fade away either. And Gary can sometimes be absolutely awful at reading the room, but the kid is in the definition of flight or fight mode. Wow, Gary is not the right person to be dealing with this situation, but there is no one else he could turn to. The kid would probably beat KVN to death on sight, and actually, that might be a good idea---!

No, nope, nope, focus Gary. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts and takes a step towards the ridiculously small boy. Has he been fed probably? Kids of whatever age he is shouldn’t be so small, right? “Are your arms, alright? Those burns looked real bad last time I saw them.”

Gary inches forwards again, and that’s when the boy launches himself off the bed and onto the ground, hissing at the impact in his arms. The kid recovers before Gary can get over the shock of the sudden movement and sprints past Gary, ripping the grate off from the vent and climbing inside. Gary’s body catches up to him as he finds himself scrambling into the vent after the kid, but he pauses when the kid looks back at him. Tears are pooling in impossibly frightened eyes, his claws out and bared in front of him, his whole body trembling. The kid’s folded back ears cause a pang in Gary’s chest that he’s never felt before, and his only thought is that the boy looks like he’s preparing himself to be hurt.

“Gary, you should give him space,” HUE interjects.

The sudden voice startles the boy, but Gary takes this opportunity to slide himself out of the vent and put the grate back in place. The boy scrunches his brow in obvious confusion, so Gary gives him the kindest smile he can muster and answers the unasked question.

“I get it, alone time is cool, especially in a...tiny and vaguely claustrophobic space,” he says awkwardly.

The cat-boy stares at him for a moment before turning away from him, wrapping his arms around his knees and staring dejectedly at the walls of the vents. Gary places his hand on the grate and stares at the boy with a frown etched on his face, feeling like a whole new type of useless. When the kid rubs a palm into his eyes, Gary knows he should leave, for the sake of the kid.

So, he stands and walks to his room and falls into his desk chair, spinning idly for a moment before snatching up his video camera and turning it on.

“Quinn, you are not going to _believe_ the wild crazy heroic adventure I had today.”

* * *

Gary sighs as he hears the scurrying through the vents again as the kid crawls around doing who knows what. He hasn’t caught a glimpse of the kid besides his tail after taking the food Gary leaves for him in the past five days. It’s like the time a raccoon was living in his car, but so much more messed up.

“Okay, HUE, we’ve gotta do something about the Spider-cat situation,” Gary says, slapping his hands on the table in the commissary. “Can you formulate me up some solutions?”

HUE is silent for a second before he responds. “I am not programmed to deal with children, Gary, despite how you act.”

“Oh my god,” Gary says in disbelief. “You did not just sass me like that, HUE. That was _harsh_. And seriously, you haven’t got a single idea in that cloud of yours?”

“My best suggestion is to get him to trust you. He seems to have a more nervous reaction when I try to talk to him than with you.”

Gary rolls his eyes. “Yeah, that was already the plan, genius. But _how_ do I do that?”

HUE doesn’t respond, and Gary knows that the AI is just being petty at this point. They’ve known each other for how long, and HUE can’t even give him this one solid? So rude. Fine, Gary can solve this puzzle himself and get the kid to stop living in the vents. Piece of cake. 

He has no idea where the kid is in the vents, and wandering aimlessly around the Galaxy One doesn’t help his case in the slightest. The dang kid is learning how to avoid him better, and Gary is not going to let the kid out of sight that easily. So, even if this idea probably won’t work, he’ll do it anyways. Gary swings by his quarters and steals his make-shift guitar and heads into the large lounging area of the ship where he has a nice view of the stars and sits next to one of the vents. 

He leans against the wall and strums his messed up little instrument, humming whatever comes to mind for a while. Gary taps his feet along to the song, letting the flow take him wherever. He hopes that the kid will come out to listen, but he never does.

So, he tries again the next day. When that still doesn’t work, Gary sits next to the vent and tries again the day after that. And the next day, and the next, and the next.

The kid is surprisingly stubborn, Gary has to give him that.

He pops his lips, sitting down in front of the same vent once again today, trying to brainstorm what kind of song to play today that might get the kid to come out. Gary drums his fingers on the ground absentmindedly, thinking about how his songs so far had been tame and relatively calm. Maybe if he acts obnoxious on purpose, the kid might come. Or, he could just ignore him even more. Gary’s willing to give it a 50/50 shot at working, in his expert opinion.

So, Gary sings the loudest and stupidest song he can think of, making the most discordant strums at random in the hopes that messing up on purpose is successful. Is the song All Star? Maybe, but it’s easy to yell.

“Well, the years start coming and they--!”

Gary cuts himself off when he hears a clang behind him, turning around to see the kid staring at him with wide open eyes, his nose scrunched in confusion. Gary’s mouth just hangs open in surprise that his plan worked, and his resident Spider-cat actually came to him.

“Can you, like, keep it down or something?” the kid asks, wrapping his arms around his knees like the last time.

“What, you can’t handle listening to one of the greatest songs in the universe sung by the next greatest rockstar?” Gary smiles teasingly at the kid. He knows he’s being obnoxious for once. Hopefully the kid understands jokes, wait, is that something that can really happen? A kid not understanding a joke?

The kid stares at him, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “I wouldn’t call that singing,” he mumbles, taking a jab at Gary.

Gary gasps dramatically, clutching his chest with a hand. “Oh, so you’ve got some sass in you, huh, Spider-cat? Well, I’m just gonna have to prove you wrong then.”

So, Gary starts back up right where he left off, leaning back against the wall and strumming even more on his guitar and channeling all of his energy into being annoying. He almost half expects the kid to leave again, but when he turns around thinking he’ll see an empty vent, the boy is staring at the vent wall with his hands placed over his ears. Gary keeps sing-shouting, and he swears he could see a glimpse of a smile on the kid’s face.

His goofy grin mellows out into a soft smile for a moment, then picks back up full force and turns back around to give the kid space. Gary continues to sing, ignoring how long he’s been going. All he knows is that when he turns around after stopping for a moment, the kid’s tail is disappearing around the corner.

Well, it’s better progress than he expected.

* * *

After completing his mandatory prison maintenance on yet another satellite, Gary drops down next to the vent in the lounge, groaning loudly and laying flat on his back. It’ll probably take the Galaxy One’s resident cryptid a while to come down to see what he’s up to, if at all, so Gary’s prepped and ready to take a big fat nap right about---

The soft clanging of metal leads Gary to flopping onto his stomach to see the kid sitting criss-crossed, his sharp eyes watching him. That...is a _lot_ quicker than Gary expected, but he’s willing to bet it’s his irresistible charm.

Gary smirks at the kid. “Came back for more of the legend in the making?”

“No,” the kid says too quickly, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning in a way that Gary has to call it a pout to his utmost amusement.

“Okay, I totally don’t believe that.”

The boy doesn’t respond, his tail flicking absently. Gary hasn’t exactly been planning what he would do once he reached this stage of the kid trusting him, so now he feels stuck. The kid and him just stare at each other, the awkward silence permeating the space between them. 

“So…,” Gary trails off, popping his lips a few times. “You got a name, Spider-cat?”

“Spider-cat? What is that,” the boy asks.

Gary shrugs from his position on the ground. “Well, you’ve been crawling around the vents like a mini Spider-Man for days. And, you know, you’re a cat, thought that part would be obvious. So, name?”

The kid turns away from him without responding, and Gary deflates. This is not going as planned. Granted, he never really had a plan to start with, but the failure still weighs heavily on him. Spider-cat’s determination to be unhelpful is impressive, he has to admit. Gary combs his fingers through his hair with a frown, trying to come up with something to talk about, but his thoughts are interrupted by the boy’s stomach growling.

“Hungry? I’ll be back in a bit, Spider-cat, hold down the fort.”

Gary jumps up and heads to the kitchen area, grabbing some food that looks like something a cat-boy will eat. Up until this point, the kid has just been taking whatever he wants to eat while Gary isn’t around, so the blond has no idea what the boy’s preferences are. He puts it on a plate and walks back to the vent in the lounge. When Gary sees the kid still sitting there sheepishly, he smiles and sits down in front of the grate, placing the plate down.

“Go ahead and dig in, Spider-cat,” Gary says, pushing it closer to the kid.

The kid glances at him but ultimately doesn’t move to get the food. Gary backs up a bit, and still nothing. Fine, today isn’t the day. “Okay, I’ll just leave this here for you and get on out of your space, little man.”

The man slowly backs up, and he doesn’t hear the grate opening until he’s already out of the room. He sighs and scrubs a hand down his face in frustration while he walks back to his room, falling back on his bed and turning his camera on to send his daily message to Quinn.

“Quinn, Gary again, and I have got an insane problem on my hands, like it’s super omega serious,” he starts, pushing his hair out of his eyes to keep talking unobstructed. “You know the resident Spider-cat I got living in my vents? I have no idea what to do with the kid! We made some real progress yesterday, like he actually talked to me! And again today, but he shut the front door in my face still!”

“Progress is often not linear, Gary,” HUE chimes in suddenly.

“HUE, you know that I don’t know math, so I have no idea what that means,” Gary deadpans.

Gary sighs, mussing up his hair just to have something to do with his hands. “I just want the kid to talk to me, you feel me, Quinn? I haven’t done anything to make him afraid of me, so maybe he’s just scared in general? Kid was probably hurt bad, like a sucker punch right to his emotions. I know the feeling, so...guess it’ll just take some time. Lucky for him, I’ve got _way_ too much of it.”

* * *

Gary has sat next to the vent every day since he played the guitar for the kid and tried to talk to the kid by giving him food, and every day the kid shows up and stays quiet. At least he shows up, that’s a victory Gary will gladly take. Perfect attendance, terrible participation.

The blond lays stomach down in front of the kid again today, his hand propped underneath his chin. “So, anything new going on today, Spider-cat? Find something interesting in the vents?”

The boy shrugs, glancing at Gary quickly from the corner of his eye, but then he turns his body to face the man to Gary’s complete surprise. “I, uh, think so?”

“You think so? What did you see, small fry?” Gary asks, all too eager to get the kid to keep talking.

“I think I saw a couple of the SAMES trying to figure out how to kiss each other? It was really confusing, and I think I kinda wish I never saw it. They just...banged their heads together,” the kid admits quietly.

Gary is quiet for a moment, taking the time needed to process what just happened, then he bursts into loud laughter, causing the kid to jump a bit. The blond chuckles and hits his hand on the ground once, but he notices Spider-cat relaxing ever so slightly after Gary reacted positively to him. 

“Oh, my gosh, that is hilarious. The SAMES do weird stuff like that all the time, trust me,” Gary laughs. “One time, all of them just stood together in a circle for like an hour staring at the ground, and I was about ready for the evil robot revenge revolution to finally happen. Turns out, all of them were just looking at a dead bug. And oh, don’t get me started on Hank’s addiction to his freakin’ flamethrower, the guy uses it once a week.”

The kid’s lip quirks up into the smallest smile, and he shuffles to be a little closer to Gary. Oh, so storytime is what the kid likes, huh?

“You wanna hear another story? I got bunches of ‘em,” Gary asks.

The small nod and the kid’s excited eyes are all he needs to get started. “Okay, so when I was even littler than you, I remember my dad brought home these really weird alien peppers from work. I had literally never seen them before, and all my dad said about them was that they were super spicy so I should stay away. Anyways, obviously I didn’t, what kid isn’t gonna get their grubby hands on some space peppers, and I decided to perform surgery on these bad boys to figure out what the hell they are. But, my dad comes home from work early, and I had been in trouble like the week before for skipping some homework so I freaked out. Like blaring alarms were going off all around me, and you know what I did?”

The kid shakes his head, his eyes laser focused onto Gary and his storytelling. It makes Gary’s grin grow even bigger.

“I start trying to hide the evidence, running around our kitchen like a crazy little bug. I toss the pepper rights violation of a dissection into the trash and throw the knife back in the drawer I got it from. And then I do something that I should not have done, and wiped my hands covered in pepper juice all over my face because I was sweating like a dying horse. Man, when I tell you how much my eyes started watering, it was like a garden hose pouring out of my eyes. Worst hurt I have ever felt, little man.”

Spider-cat snorts, trying to hold his laughter back. “What about your dad?”

Gary smirks. “Good catch, because the story keeps going. My dad comes into the kitchen and starts asking about my day, you know, dad stuff, and then he gets hungry. I’m standing there with Satan’s blood burning my retinas, and my dear old dad goes to grab an apple and a knife from the drawer.” The kid gasps, and Gary nods. “Oh yeah, you’re quick, Spider-cat. He cuts the apple with the same freakin’ knife from the crime scene, and he starts hurting right away. Now that he knows the pain I’ve been going through for a hot minute, I confess to the big man what happened. You know what he does? Starts laughing, but the heat of those damn peppers gave him the worst hiccups I’ve ever heard, and now he’s doing both at the same time! It was the stupidest noise I’ve ever heard in my whole life, little dude.”

Now, the kid starts laughing for real, and Gary doesn’t think he’s exaggerating when he thinks it’s the most satisfying and rewarding sound he has ever heard. The blond laughs along with the kid and dives into another story at the boy’s insistence.

When Gary retells the day’s events in his video diary to Quinn that night, Gary absolutely and definitely is not crying tears of joy. Totally not over a cat-boy laughing at his stories and jokes, that’d be stupid.

* * *

Gary walks through the kitchen and stops to stare at the cookies. “HUE, I never got my reward for my heroic actions, did I?”

“You did not, Gary, would you like it now?”

“Wait, seriously? I can just...have a cookie?” Gary asks.

“Yes, Gary. Your behavior has changed over the last few weeks and through your interactions with the boy. You have more than earned it.”

Gary’s mouth drops open with a quick laugh, and he stares reverently as HUE opens the cookie cabinet for him. He doesn’t waste a second in snatching a cookie from out of there and holding it lovingly. Oh, he absolutely needs to share it with the small fry.

Gary walks out to the lounge and sits criss-crossed in front of the vent, and it only takes a small while for Gary to hear the scuffling of the kid coming towards him. Gary hasn’t said anything about it, but he’s not as oblivious to the kid following him around the ship through the vents as Spider-cat probably thinks. If stalking Gary through the ship helps him out, who is he to judge. 

The kid drops down and scurries over to the front of the vent, sitting close to Gary. Gary smiles and holds up the cookie. “You want a piece of this chocolate goodness, little man?”

The kid nods, so Gary slips the cookie between the slits of the vent. The kid grabs onto it, and together they split it in half with the kid’s side being bigger. Gary doesn’t mind, and they sit quietly and enjoy their snack. Gary is…surprisingly disappointed in how bland the cookies are, but the kid is enjoying it so he doesn’t care in the slightest. 

“How’re you doing today, Spider-cat?” Gary asks.

The kid shrugs. Ah, a quiet day. That’s fine with Gary, he can carry the conversation by himself as evidenced by the kid’s other quiet days. They’ve fallen into a routine over these past few weeks, and Gary has spent more time sitting on the hard ground than doing anything else combined.

“So, what story should I tell you today…,” Gary trails off, tapping his chin in thought.

Before he can think of one, the kid sniffles. The blond turns to look at the kid and pauses when he sees tears in the boy’s eyes. Gary is frozen, not knowing what to do and not knowing why the sight makes his chest ache painfully.

“Hey, little buddy, what’s wrong?” Gary questions softly. The kid just wipes his tears away and shakes his head, causing a frown to form on Gary’s face. “You know, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I’m...I’m here, little man.”

The kid’s face crumples, his ears folding back against his head, as a shaky breath leaves him, and more tears pour out from behind the boy’s eyelids. Gary doesn’t understand it when tears start pooling in his own eyes, and he turns around with his back to the kid so that he doesn’t frighten him. The blond leans back against the grate, but he stiffens when tiny little paws press up against his back. He relaxes just as quickly, biting down on his lip to stop himself from crying. Why is this upsetting him so much?

“Small fry, I...you can talk to me, anytime you want, you know? Being alone with those sharp little thoughts of yours hurts, I get it. But you don’t have to talk yet, okay?”

Gary’s voice is the softest he’s ever heard from himself, and he relishes in the feeling of the kid’s warm hands kneading nervously into his back. He can feel every tremble as if it’s his own, and his own tears start coming with even more force now. What is wrong with him, that a crying kid can make him so completely unravel?

“Not yet, it hurts,” his Spider-cat whispers, his words choked up.

Gary breathes out a sardonic laugh. “No worries, little man. I won’t go anywhere, promise. We’ve got time.”

The kid sobs once and mumbles, “Okay.”

Gary...has no idea what he’s doing with this. He’s not the parental type, and he never thought he could be, but…. This kid? Gary is absolutely certain that he will sit here until the stars go dark if that’s what his...this kid asks of him. His knowledge about what happened to the kid is nonexistent, but he swears that he’ll find out.

Hours pass, and Gary just stays. Listening to the boy’s breathing ever so slowly evening out until his gentle yet desperate grip loosens, his hands falling limp off of Gary’s back. Gary wipes his tears from his cheeks and slowly turns around, his mouth opening slightly at the sight of the kid asleep against the vent. He would move him to somewhere more comfortable, but he is so worried that one wrong step and everything will fall apart. Reluctantly, Gary stands up and walks to his own room. He hasn’t eaten anything since the cookie earlier, but he doesn’t care. His thoughts are stuck on the feeling of warm pressure against his back, the first not freezing touch he’s felt in two years.

The lights in his room switch on when he enters, and he sits down softly on his bed and turns his video camera on. He doesn’t say anything for a long while, just staring at his gloved hands with his thoughts forming in his emotional mind. A tear drips down his face, and he wipes it away quickly, finally looking into the camera.

“I, uh, really doubt you’ve seen any of these videos, Quinn, if I’m gonna be truthin’ it today. I’ll keep sending them because, you know, HUE says routine is good for me, but…,” Gary trails off, taking in a shaky breath. “I don’t know anything about this kid, but I just want him to be happy. Is it, is that weird? I can’t believe he...cried in front of me, can you believe it? I kinda just never expected anything to happen, I mean, who would trust me?

“Well, he does, I guess. Don’t get me wrong, I want him to trust me. It’s just...the little guy deserves better than me, right? I’m literally in prison! How could I possibly be a good role model or something? He shouldn’t, but I _really_ want him to. Quinn, let’s just hope I don’t fuck up.”

Gary’s quiet voice somehow echoes in the silent ship, and he turns the camera off with a soft sigh.

* * *

It took a few days, but the kid is finally feeling better and participating in discussions with Gary. The kid is insanely hilarious when he wants to be. Gary hasn’t brought up the crying sessions, deciding to stew in anxiety and doubts while waiting for the kid to either deem him trustworthy or the worst evil in existence. He...doesn’t really know what to expect either way, to be perfectly honest.

Gary is just laying by the vent, the kid next to him testing out Gary’s makeshift guitar, and it makes the worries in his chest fade away into warmth. “It sounds...awful,” the kid says, laughing at the discordant and horribly off-key notes.

“Hey, don’t trash it, Spider-cat. I made that myself with limited resources, it’s hard to find guitar stores out in the middle of the universe,” Gary teases. “What kind of music do you like?”

The kid shrugs. “I don’t know, a bunch of stuff. Human heavy metal is probably my favorite though.”

Gary pushes himself up to stare gobsmacked at the boy. The kid raises an eyebrow in confusion at him, but all Gary can do is gasp in surprise.

“Heavy metal? You’re like, what, eight years old?” Gary asks in shock.

Spider-cat glares at him. “I’m eleven, so shut the fuck up.”

The blond chokes down a laugh, biting down hard on his lip, but ultimately he can’t keep it in and starts dying of laughter. Gary falls onto his back as he tries to compose himself, totally failing. After a few moments of absolute delight at how serious the kid’s answer was, Gary sits up and wipes away his tears from giggling too hard.

The kid looks awfully confused, so Gary mellows out his goofy grin and holds his fist out in front of the grate for the kid. “You aren’t lacking for any spunk, little buddy. Put it there, heavy metal’s a good choice, just totally unexpected for someone as little as you.”

It takes a moment, but the boy’s frown turns into a soft smile at being taken seriously. When his little dude’s tiny fist bumps into his, Gary has to restrain himself from crying happy tears.

“So, heavy metal. You know, HUE’s got a surprisingly large music section….”

* * *

Little Cato watches the rise and fall of Gary’s chest from where the man is passed out, leaning against the wall next to the vent. He was too nervous to tell the man to go to sleep in his own bed when he noticed him drifting off earlier in their conversation. The young Ventrexian isn’t sure, he doubts he’ll ever be sure about anything ever again, but he trusts Gary. He says weird things sometimes, but it’s been weeks. The human hasn’t done anything to make him not trust him. Well, it could all be a trap still, but….

He wants to trust him, he really does. Little Cato doesn’t want to be alone like he is now. He’ll...trust Gary, he decides. If Gary betrays his trust and everything falls to shambles immediately, he will never trust anyone again. Yeah, that’s a solid plan, Little Cato thinks.

His hands shake as he moves them towards the grate, and he ignores the tears dripping down his face. _Don’t think about your dad, just get it over with_.

Little Cato swallows the nervous lump in his throat and gently moves the grate out of the way to slip out, putting it back in place when he’s done. Gary is still asleep, so Little Cato crawls over to him and curls up on his lap, closing his eyes against the wave of loneliness it brings. He’s only going to do this for a little bit, just a few minutes, and then he’ll go back in the vent. Just...a few minutes….

Little Cato is fast asleep, most of his tears dried by the time Gary’s hand gently touches his shoulder. Little Cato leans into the touch subconsciously and smiles into Gary’s knee, but he misses the warm, proud, teary-eyed smile Gary gives him when the man goes back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHA OH MY GOD THIS ONE IS LONG. I am so glad you all have enjoyed this story so far! I'm gonna keep it going until s3 airs and it miiiight take a break during the season, but even if it does you can bet that it will be back during the off-season time. And here is the art that accompanies this chapter made by the wonderful Butterfly <3: https://twitter.com/Bflyscribbles/status/1363854691885584390?s=20


	3. Why

When Gary wakes up, the weight on his lap has disappeared, and he panics for a moment, looking around frantically. Did the kid go back up into the vents? Did Gary mess up somehow? He stands up, but that’s when his eyes land on the kid kneeling on the cushions lining the viewing window, staring out at the stars all around them.

Gary’s heart rate drops back down to normal, and he decides to ignore the meaning behind that for the moment. Gary stretches quickly with a yawn and walks over, dropping down next to where the kid is kneeling. “Taking in the view, little man?”

The kid nods, leaning forward and resting his chin on his crossed arms. “Haven’t really looked at it all since I’ve been here.”

“You haven’t really seen anything except the inside of the vents for a few weeks. A tour of the ship would probably be good for you,” Gary says absentmindedly.

“What tour? There’s like three things on the ship,” the kid replies.

Gary gasps in offense at the kid’s smug grin. “Oh my gosh, do not diss the Galaxy One. She may have three things, but they are cherished by the captain of this ship.”

“What are you even doing here?”

The blond pauses, and he realizes that this could go poorly if he tells the kid the truth. Well, of course he’s going to be honest when he’s worked so hard to get the boy to leave the freaking vents. Gary might as well just rip the bandaid off.

“Serving a prison sentence, and since I can see the look on your face that means you’re gonna ask why, I accidentally---key word accidentally---blew up 92 Imperium cruisers after impersonating a pilot,” Gary admits sheepishly.

“Ninety-two?” the kid asks. When Gary nods, the kid whistles. “Wow, that’s a lot for an accident. No wonder they stuck you here, but I’m kinda surprised they didn’t give you like a worse prison sentence or something.”

Gary scratches the back of his neck. “Well, my dad was a member of the Infinity Guard, and a really high up one at that, so the government just did not want my name getting out to the press. So, here I am, floating through space with nothing to do.”

“Ooh, a cover-up, that’s cool,” Spider-cat says excitedly. “How old are you?”

Well, someone is awfully chatty this morning. Gary isn’t going to complain about it, but it’s a definite surprise for sure. 

“Twenty-nine.”

“Oh, you’re pretty old.”

Gary laughs in confusion. “Old? I’m not even middle aged, you snarky little green bean. Oh wait, you’re eleven. Okay, teenagers are old to you, so you’re not allowed to call anyone old anymore, got it?”

Before Gary can think, his hand is reaching out and ruffling the kid’s mohawk. His hand stills when he processes what he’s doing, but the kid just stares at him, not moving away or reacting negatively. Not knowing what to do, Gary awkwardly ruffles his hair once more and pulls his hand away. Spider-cat has a look on his face that is hard for Gary to figure out due to his very bad people skills, and after a brief moment, Gary awkwardly clears his throat and looks away.

He stands up and tries to pretend that hadn’t just happened, not being able to explain what had come over him to make him want to do that in the slightest. “Well, small fry, how about we go eat some very bland breakfast?”

The kid nods and bounces up out of his seating, bounding out of the room excitedly with his tail swishing behind him. Gary wants to be happy that the kid is ridiculously more relaxed than before, but something feels...off about it, how unabashedly happy the kid is acting. Granted, this might be normal for Spider-cat, but Gary really doubts that.

* * *

“Hey, where have you been sleeping this whole time?” Gary asks the kid as they walk through the ship towards the rooms aboard the ship.

He shrugs. “You know, just around.”

“Not in an actual bed?”

“There’s some room I found in the vents, kinda cozy in there.”

Gary stares blankly at the kid. “No bed? Seriously?”

The kid’s eyes flit to Gary and then away again, a guilty expression on his face. “Wasn’t the first time, it was fine.” Before Gary has a moment to respond to that, the kid jogs up to the door to one of the empty bedrooms, the door sliding open behind him. “Well, good night, Gary!”

And the kid slips through the doorway just like that, leaving Gary out in the hallway. The blond stands dumbfounded for a moment until he shakes his head and walks into his own room. He lets his body flop back onto his bed, one leg hanging off the edge. Gary sighs and scrubs a hand over his face.

“HUE, that was weird, right?” Gary asks to the ceiling.

“Yes it was, Gary, and I must admit that the boy has not used any of the beds on the ship.”

Gary frowns up at where he likes to picture HUE residing. “I feel like I should do more, you know?”

HUE hums, or, well, his equivalent of humming. Gary isn’t really sure how it works. “What do you have in mind, Gary?”

“I don’t know, man. Kid’s still jittery after all this freakin’ time, and I still don’t even know what happened to him. Should I ask him?”

“Do what you feel is best, Gary. I trust your judgement when it comes to making decisions regarding your Spider-cat.”

“He’s not mine, HUE, we both know--wait, did you just say you trust me?” Gary sits up in surprise, opening and closing his mouth for a few seconds in absolute shock. “Me? You trust me with a whole cat-child, but not a guitar?”

Gary doesn’t understand in the slightest. HUE has always been on his case, reminding him to take his meds and keeping a closer eye on him during moments where Gary isn’t too hot emotionally. No one like him should be allowed, let alone _trusted_ to take care of a child.

He is Gary Goodspeed, a man who has never done anything good in his entire life.

“I do trust you, Gary. You have shown a level of responsibility and caring that I have never seen from you before this boy came onto the ship. And your mental health has improved significantly from your interactions. I believe having him here is a good influence on you.”

Gary laughs under his breath. “He’s not gonna be here forever, HUE. He’s probably got someone looking for him.”

HUE pauses for a moment before continuing. “No matter the outcome, it is obvious that you have done an exceptional job with him. I am proud of you.”

His mind goes blank besides fervent denial running through his thoughts. Gary doesn’t...he can’t believe that. HUE knows everything he has been and everything he will be, the AI is the last person who should say Gary has done anything _good_. It just isn’t possible.

“I would not lie to you, Gary. It goes against my programming, and my standards.”

“Okay, good night, HUE.”

The lights in his bedroom dim, and HUE says, “Good night, Gary.”

Gary doesn’t sleep that night, mulling HUE’s words over and over and doubting each one.

* * *

It takes a few days for Gary to realize why he picked up on the kid’s odd behavior, but when he realizes it, a pit forms in his stomach. The little guy is pushing his feelings over whatever happened to him _deep_ down, deciding to bounce around and act like nothing is the matter. Gary has gone through this routine too many times himself, including how he hasn’t let the kid know any of his own depressing thoughts in the universe’s greatest act of hypocrisy, but the fake cheeriness is palpable in a ship of only robots. HUE could tell and confirmed Gary’s fears when he brought it up one night, but it sits uneasy on Gary’s conscience. 

The boy laughs without it ever reaching his eyes, and Gary has managed to catch the brief moments of the kid staring out at the stars from the same spot against the viewing window, his eyes so empty yet clearly searching for something. Gary wishes he knew what haunts the kid’s memories, but he’s almost glad that he can still have fun with the kid in not-so blissful ignorance. 

What could happen to an eleven year old that makes him lose his innocence like that? To stare at the stars and not feel excitement?

Gary knows his own answer to that question, but what will it be for Spider-cat?

“You’re in my spot,” the kid says, pushing lightly against Gary’s arm as he joins him against the viewing window in the lounge. 

Gary scoots over with a teasing eye roll. “Okay, Mr. Bossy, give me a second. You’ve got this whoooole long couch to sit on, but you just have to be right here.”

“Finders keepers, Gary, those are the rules.” The kid grins at him smugly, and Gary can’t miss how it looks forced.

“Well by those rules, I’ve been here way longer than you, little man. Taking over my turf, huh?” Gary says, trying not to give away the fact that he can see how tightly the kid is gripping the backrest, and how the kid’s tail is wrapped around his torso.

The boy shrugs and looks out into the stars again, and Gary’s ability to avoid addressing things that bother him escapes into the void of space. He takes off his gloves and slips his boots off to get more comfortable, turning to stare at the view himself.

“Do you think people ever get tired of looking at the stars?”

The blond flits his eyes over to the kid for a second, and his breath stops as the kid’s eyes absolutely shine. Spider-cat’s focus is on somewhere far away, farther than Gary thinks he has ever been. Kids shouldn’t stare at the endless adventures the stars hold with eyes so old, weariness and a pain Gary wishes he couldn’t relate to reflecting the twinkling of the universe. 

He has to know, today has to be the day.

“I hope not,” Gary says seriously.

The boy’s tail flicks as he looks down. “They’re the stars, everyone’s supposed to love them, right? It’s just how it is,” the kid says, sounding as if he’s trying to convince himself that his words are true.

Gary pauses for a moment before responding. “What are you trying to get at, buddy?”

“If people get tired of the stars, it’s because the stars are boring, right? They just aren’t worth the effort,” the kid spits out bitterly. “You’re supposed to like looking at the stars, so when you don’t want to anymore, it’s no one’s fault except the stars.”

The kid’s eyes harden their gaze, staring deeply into the distance until tears pool in his eyes, and he blinks them away. His orange ears fold back against his head miserably, and he buries his face in the cushions of the seat. Gary jumps to put a concerned hand on the boy’s shoulder and give it an encouraging squeeze.

“Small fry, you gotta tell me what happened,” Gary says quietly.

“It’s my fault,” Spider-cat moans.

“I’m gonna need some more pieces of the puzzle, kiddo.”

The kid’s head whips towards Gary with frightened, guilty tears on his face, latching onto Gary’s gaze like his life depends on it. The blond has no time to prepare himself for whatever is about to happen, but he doubts any preparation would ease the gut-wrenching pain he feels when the kid screams, “My dad tried to kill me, and it’s all my fault!”

Gary feels the cold chill that settles in his spine and drains the blood from his face, but he barely registers his arms pulling Spider-cat close to him, the kid heaving screaming sobs and clawing his way into the man’s hold. He doesn’t know what to do or say or even think except to make sure this kid has something warm to lean into. Did he even process the boy’s words yet? Did he hear that right?

“He-he was gonna do it and everyone else did and they died and he _looked at me and shot at me_ \--,” the kid cuts his frantic rambling off with more sobbing, panicked and broken entirely. “I was gonna die so I ran and ran but she _died_ when she went ba-ack.”

Gary is glad that he took his gloves off as he runs his fingers through the fur on the back of the boy’s head, and he starts crying himself when the kid leans into the touch. He is reminded clearly of what utter heartbreak does to someone, so he rests his head in Spider-cat’s mohawk. The kid needs someone here, someone who understands his pain and won’t just leave right after a funeral.

Oh god, he remembers the wreckage of the boy’s ship. His little Spider-cat would have died if Gary had never been there to save him in the nick of time. And his own _father_ did that. He...never expected something like this.

Another choking sob bubbles from the kid’s throat, and Gary’s arms tighten around the kid. Gary has to keep him here in his arms, he doesn’t think he would let go even if someone tried to tear them apart. The boy is going to cry his throat raw at this rate, but Gary can worry about that after the small fry cries out his grief.

“What did I do wrong?” the kid wails into Gary’s chest, his own little chest heaving from the effort of breathing.

Gary lets go of the boy for a moment to lean down and cup his wet checks in his warm hands. “Hey, you did nothing wrong. Your...father was wrong to do that, okay? There isn’t _anything_ you could have done to deserve that.”

“Why?! What did I do? What did I do?”

Do people get tired of stars, huh? Of course the kid was thinking about himself, desperately searching for an answer as to why his own parent wanted to kill him. Fury burrowed its way into Gary’s chest as he held the kid protectively again, the boy’s soft head shaking underneath the blond’s chin. Whoever his father is, that man is going to have hell to pay. Gary knows he won’t get any more information out of the boy tonight, and it would be mean to question him now. The kid already trusted him with this, it can be enough for now.

He rubs circles into the boy’s back as his Spider-cat keeps sobbing, muttering heartbreaking questions under his breath in the search of some kind of answer. 

They sit there until his Spider-cat’s red eyes are droopy from exhaustion, the tears drying on his face sticky to the touch. His sobbing ran out long ago, but the kid’s face is still haunted.

“You can conk out, little buddy. You deserve some rest,” Gary speaks softly.

The kid hums noncommittally and slides down onto the blond’s lap rather than leaning up against him. 

“Hey, what’s your name little dude?”

Spider-cat blinks up at him once before mumbling, “Little Cato.”

Gary smiles at him and runs a hand through Little Cato’s hair once more. “Alright, Little Cato, close those peepers for me.”

Little Cato hums again, then says, “Gary?”

“Yeah, small fry?”

Little Cato opens his eyes as wide as he can and meets Gary’s gaze. The man is amazed that the light from the stars still reflect in the boy’s eyes, making him seem younger than he already is and giving him some of his innocence back. Then, Little Cato breathes out softly and says, his voice soft and so sure despite his hours of confusion and awfully sleepy, “You feel safe.”

The kid is out like a light immediately, breathing evenly despite the occasional shudder on top of Gary’s lap.

“HUE?”

“Yes, Gary?”

Gary turns to look out the viewing window at the stars, wondering which one Little Cato used to call home. He ignores his reflection and the tears shining in his eyes.

“I don’t want him to go back to his… _family_ , even if there’s someone else.”

“And where do you propose he goes?”

Gary gives Little Cato’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Well, there’s room on the Galaxy One if he wants to stay, right?”

“That can be arranged, Gary. But you have more thoughts regarding Little Cato’s father, do you not?”

Gary pauses for a moment and just breathes, pushing his rightful anger away for when, or if, the kid wants to talk about all of that. It isn’t the most important item on his to do list, he thinks, looking down at the child in his lap. Gary Goodspeed, with a kid, who could have ever imagined.

“I’ll deal with that bastard another time, HUE.”  
“You should get some rest as well, Gary. Good night.”

“Night, HUE.”

Tomorrow, Gary will see what else Little Cato is willing to tell him. But for tonight, he is seriously grateful that he found this kid when he did. He thinks he may be willing to do whatever to prevent the alternative.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAA this chapter took a while because life is a thing that happens. s3 is quickly approaching so expect some of this mixed in with fics for whatever pain olan puts us through, and thanks for all the love on this one so far!!

**Author's Note:**

> Yes the season 3 trailer killed me and yes I am going to be writing again when I've got the time, starting with this kind of fresh idea that I hope you all like! Little Cato is never immune from angst.


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